Now starring in "The Addams Family," Roger Rees enjoyed early success with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s in town — performing five shows in repertory at the Park Avenue Armory — so it seemed a fine time to talk with Roger Rees about the 22 years he spent there.

Rees, now in “The Addams Family,” won a Tony in 1982 for his star turn in the RSC’s “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby,” and wide acclaim for his “Hamlet” in 1985.

But he began, as all actors do at the RSC, by carrying a spear.

“And a shield,” says Rees, now 67. “The shields were enormous. In ‘Julius Caesar,’ I died early in the scene and used to fall asleep under the shield until I was woken up by applause. You didn’t have any lines — other than ‘The Queen!’ or ‘Ah, my Lord’ — for four years.”

As a young man, Rees trained to be an artist. One day, while he was painting scenery 40 feet above the stage of the Wimbledon Theatre, Arthur Lane called up to him: “Would you like to be in a play the week after next?”

Lane was one of the last of the actor-managers — larger-than-life personalities who ran the theater and directed and starred in all the plays. There wasn’t much time to learn lines.

“Arthur tore up the script and distributed pages of it around the set,” Rees recalls. “Page 36

would be on the mantelpiece. ‘See here!’ he’d say, then move to the coffee table looking for Page 37.”

Rees’ agent got him a 10-minute audition for the RSC in 1965.

“They weren’t really looking for actors — they were looking for young, strong men who could push the scenery,” he says. “I auditioned and they said, ‘Go away. Your voice is no good.’ ”

A year later, after learning major roles at a theater in Scotland, Rees auditioned again. This time he was invited to join the company.

British stage acting was going through a revolution, with the old-fashioned, plant-your-feet-and-declaim style giving way to more naturalism.

“Romeo and Juliet were no longer being played by 45-year-old actors,” Rees says.

Director Trevor Nunn led a company of rising stars that included Ian McKellen and Judi Dench.

But there were old-timers, too.

Beetle-browed character actor Nicholas Selby reduced his workload by giving away bits of his part: “Darling, your character could say these 10 lines. No one’s going to notice.”

Donald Sinden had a holiday tradition. On Dec. 25, he always performed with Christmas lights on his head.

The pay for a young actor at the RSC wasn’t much — $60 a week. It didn’t last long. The crafty old actors always beat the young ones at poker: “You got paid on Friday, go for a late-night poker game and have no money on Saturday. But the RSC took your rent out of the paycheck, so at least you had a place to sleep.”

Not that anybody slept much. The workload was immense: They’d rehearse one play in the morning, perform another in the afternoon and a third in the evening. But nobody missed a performance unless he were under a bus. Rees broke his foot during a curtain call at a matinee and returned that night to play Malcolm in “Macbeth” in a wheelchair.

Drinking before, after and during the performance was a way of life.

“There were pints of Guinness on the dressing room tables,” says Rees. “It’s good for the throat. After the show, we’d go to a pub called the Dirty Duck.

“Dorothy Tutin, who was playing Rosalind in ‘As You Like It,’ challenged us at 3 o’clock in the morning to swim the river from the Dirty Duck. We did. At least I think we did. I don’t remember much of that particular night.”

Rees left the RSC to do movies (“Star 80”), plays (“The Real Thing,” “Indiscretions”) and television (“Cheers”) — a former spear carrier emerging from “the semi-gloom” and stepping into the spotlight.